Can-cap feed



May 8, 1923.

H. L. GUENTHER GAN CAP FEED `Fled Deo. 2l 1921 yl'. 'uenzker 'fomney IIIIUIIIIIIIII Patented May 8, 1923.

,UNETED STATES HENBY L. GUENTHER, OF LOS-ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.

CAN-GAP FEED.

application .ined December 21, 1921. serial No. 523,824.

` To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, HENRY L. GUEN'rmR,

a citizen of the United States, residing at Los Angeles,in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented new and useful mprovements in Can-Cap Feeds, of which the following is a specification.

In can capping machines it is desirable that a cap shall be automatically fed to a can as it in turn is fed into the machine and afterwards double seamed.

In most capfeeding machines the caps are fed consecutively irrespective of the feed of cans to the machine and it is the principal object of the present invention to provide an automatically operated mechanism which will insure that a can cap will only be fed to the machine co-incidently with the feeding of a can thereto, and the cap and can will thereafter be deliveredl to vthe machine in positions relative to yeach other to insure that they will be double seamed.

The present invention contemplates the use of a can cap stack member adapted to hold a plurality of caps' in superposed rela- `tion to each other and from the bottom of which device the caps may be successively fed, such member belng disposed above the path of travel of cans to therst. operation turret of a double seeming machine of the type generally indicated in my co-pending application entitled Double seeming machine, filed concurrently herewith. Means are provided to feed the lowermost cap from the stack and this means is supplied with automatically operated mechanism adapted to insure that a cap will only @be fed when a can is about to vpass through the feed mechanism.

The invention isillustrated by way of exf ample in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is an enlarged fragmentary Viewv in plan showing the first seeming turret and' the means for feeding a can thereto, including the can cap mechanism. p

Fig. 2 is an'enlarged fragmentary view showing the trip device of the can cap feed. Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary viewy in vertical section and elevation showing the device disclosed in Fig. 2.

Referring more' particularly to the drawing, 10 indicates a horizontally disposed feed discalong which can bodies may be caused to travel and by which-they will be moved lthe feed toward the end of a double seeming machine. This machine is here shown as provided with a rotary turret structure 1l for receiving the cans and caps and for thereafter acting upon them to form a double seam between a can and itscap, the mechanism of which device is not shown in the drawing. The portion of the first seaming turret as indicated in the drawing comprises a feed spider 12 formed with a plurality of semi-circular recesses 13. These recesses occur at the ends of arms and are of such dimension as to substantially conform tothe circumferential face of a can body. The tops of these recesses are counterbored as indicated at 14 to receive a can cap,

and in addition to this, feed blades 15 are secured to the rear-most edges of the recesses .141 to feed the can caps forwardly and to carry ythem with the. can bodies seated within the recess. y

Partially circumscribing the turret structure 11 is a track 16. This track acts as a guide rail for vthe can caps and supports them as they are-fed forwardly by engagement with the blades 15.

Secured directly above the feed spider 12,l i

and in the path of rotation of the cans is a frame structure 17.` This structure supports vertical posts 18, between which a stack of can caps 19 are held, and a vbase plate 20 holds the osts 18. This plate has a centralopening t erethrough, of a size to ermit the can caps to fall onto the track 16.

c lido-ways are formed between the frame member 17 andthe plate 20. These receive plates 21, one of which is disposed at `each side of the can stack. The innermost edges of these plates normally support the stack of cans and are formed vwith blade portions which will cut the lowermost cap from thel stack, it being understood that the plates 21 simultaneously reciprocate in a horizontal Vplane beneath the stack of caps. The two plates are securedtogether by a cross-head 22. This head carries a central 23 which engages the rear edge o the' lowermost can cap and feeds it forwardly.

A pitma'n rod 24 `is pivotally secured to the crosshead 22 at its forward end, and to a lever arm 25 at its rear end. The movement of this rod produces reciprocation of plate. 'The lever 25 is fixed to a vertical pm 26. rlhis pin is formedwith an" enlarged lower portion 27, as more clearly shown in Fig. 3. A recess l28 is formed in the circumferential edge of the portion 27 push nger and may receive a pawl 29 under certain conditions as will be hereinafter described. The lower portion of the pin 26 is freely mounted for rotation in a cup member 30. This member is pinned to a positive drive shaft 31. The cup member 30 carries the pawl 29, as will more clearly be seen in Fig. 2. An expansion spring 32 is provided to normally hold the engaging end of the coil against the side face of the pin 26 to insure that it will pass into the recess 28 when in register therewith. Suitable gear means are operatively connected with the pin 26 and continuously drives the pin.

A star wheel 33 is provided to transfer the cans from the rotary feed disc 10 to the spider -12 of the turret 11. This wheel is here shown as formed with three recess arms adapted to conform to the circumference of the can and to hold it in the recess 13 of an adjacent arm on the spider 12. Tt will be understood that the cans are fed from the disc 10 and are carried along a stationary feed table 3ft as guided by the arm of the star wheel 33 and guide rails 35. These guide rails pass over the disc and partially over the stationary feed table. As before stated, it is the principal object of the presentinvention to insure that a cantop will only be delivered from the stack when a can body is being fed into the machine and in such synchronism as to insure that it will register with the fed can cap. This feeding will be brought about by the star wheel 33 andwill be supplemented by the spider 12.

lin order to insure that a no can, no cap feed will result, an enlargedbell crank 36 is provided. This bell crank is suitably pivoted to the fixed floor of the machine and has a curved arm 37 extending along the track 35. This arm normally extends into the path of the .passing can and will be depressed by the movement of the can along the track 35, as fed by the star wheel 33.

The opposite arm of the bell crank 36 is indicated at 38. This arm is straight and has an end portion normally engaging the outer free end of the pawl 29, the pawl and arm being so designed as to normally hold the pawl out of engagement with the recess 28, except, when 'the arm 37 is depressed. A spring 4 0 acts to yieldably hold the bell crank in a posit-ion so that the arm 37, is in the path. of travel of the can'. 1

lnfoperation of the present invention cans may be suitably fed ontotlie feed disc 10.'V

-conwtinuedthe cap feed will also b'e disconand as this disc rotates in the direction of the arrow --.af-, the cans will find their way between the Aguide rails and the guide rails 4l. Here they will be successively engaged by arms of the star wheel 33 and will be carried'along (while held against the guide rails 35) into register with recess 13 of one of the arrnsof star wheel 12.l lt isto be noted that the star wheel 33 and the retenes `turret 11 are geared to travel insynchroenga-ge a .guide rail 16, previously inentioned, along which it will be further carried by the action of the spider 12. This action will not have been brdught about, however, until after the can body has encountered the arm 37 of bell crank 36. At this time the arm will be depressed to conform to the contour of the guide rails 35 and this will swing the long lever arm 38 of the bell crank into the direction of the arrow -Z1-, thus relieving the pawl 29. The spring 32 -will then depress the pawl against the circumferential face of the niember 27 and when the cup 30 and the pawl proceed to travel around the pin 26 the end of the pawl'will register with the recess 2S and lock so that the pin will be rotated. This motion will be imparted to the lever arm'25 and the pitmanvrod 2d. A complete rotation of the lever arm around the ypin axis will then take place, and this will preduce alternate reciprocation of the feed plates 21. When the cup 30 and its pawl 29 again reach the p'osition of the lever '38 the pawl will be removedfrom its recess and the pin 26 will remain motionless unless it so happens that another can body is being fed past the lever 37, in which instance the pawl will remain in engagement and continue to insure that can caps will be simultaneously fed to the passn can bodies.

As the can bo y passes beneath the stack of can caps 12, one cap will be fed forwardly to the position indicated by dotted line at C. This cap Will'lbe engaged by the blade 15 following the can body, and will carry the cap along the guide track 16 and into the machine. e

lt will' thus be seen that the present invention insures that a continuous feed operation may be brought about so that can llOi iis

bodies may be rapidly and successively fed intona machine and at the same time the can caps may be co-incidently delivered to each of the can bodies passing .beneath a stach cf can caps and otherwise vinsure that when. for any reason, the flow of can bodies is disparts may be made by those skilled in the art, without departing from the spint ef the invention as claimed.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Itters Patent is:

1. In combination with a can seaming machine, a cap feed comprising positively operating means for successively feeding filled cans to a machine, and means for delivering a cap to each of the cans carried by said positive feed means, said cap deliveringl means including continuously operating riving means, can cap actuating mea-ns, and mechanism for connecting the can cap actuating means to the driving means, and means directly operated by a can for actuating the said mechanism.

2. In combination with a can seaming machine, a cap feed comprising-positively operating means for successively feeding filled cans to a machine, and means for delivering a capto each of the cans carried by said positive feed means, said cap delivering means including a continuously rotating driving shaft, can ca actuating means, a clutch for connecting t e cap actuating means and the continuously rotating shaft, and

' means directly engaged by the cans for opering a cap to each of the cans carried'by saidl positive feed means, said cap deliveringv ating the clutch.

3. In combination with a can seaming machine, a cap feed comprising positively operating means for successively feeding filled cans to a machine, and means for delivering a cap tov each of the cans carried by 'said positive feed means, said cap delivering means including a continuously rotating shaft, can cap actuating means, a clutch for connecting the cap actuating means with the 'continuously .rotating shaft, and means directly engaged by the cans for operating the clutch.

4. In combination with la can seaming machine, a cap feed comprising positively operating means for successively feeding filled cans to a machine, and means lfor delivering a cap to each of the cans carried by said positive 'feed means, said cap delivering means including reciprocating can cap actuating means, a crank element connected therewith, a continuously rotating shaft, mechanism for connecting the crank element with the continuously rotating shaft, and means directly operated by a can for actuating the said mechanism.

5. In combination with a can seaming machine, acap feed comprising positively operating means for successively feedin filled cans to a machine, and means for elivermeans including reciprocating can cap actuatlng means, a crank element connected therewith, a continuously rotating shaft a clutch for connecting the crank element with the continuously rotating shaft, and means directly engaged by the cans for operating the clutch.

6. In combination with a can seaming machine, a cap feed comprising positively operating means for successively feeding filled cans to a machine, and means for dehvering a cap to each of the cans carried .by said positive feed means, said cap delivering means including reciprocating can cap actuating means, a crank element connected therewith and having a spindle, a continuously rotating shaft provided with a cup receiving the spindle, a spring pressed pawl constituting a clutch for connecting the spindle with the continuously rotating shaft, said shaft having means for cooperating with the pawl, and means directly engaged by the cans for operating thel pawl.

7.. In combination with a can seaming machine, a cap feed comprising positively operating means for successively feeding filled cans to-a machine, and means for delivering va cap to each of the canscarried by said l positive feed means, said cap delivering means including reciprocating can cap actuating means, a crank element connected therewith and having a spindle, a continuously rotating shaft provided with a cup receiving the spindle, a pawl constituting a clutch for connecting the spindle with the continuously rotating shaft Said shaft having means cooperating with the said pawl and the latter being movable into and out of engaging position, yieldable means for urging the pawl into its engaging position` and a lever extending into the ath of the cans and adapted to be operated y the same and having an arm arranged to normally hold the pawl out of engagement with the spindle. I

8. In combination with a can seaming machine, a cap feed comprising positively operating means for successively feeding filled cans to a machine, and means for delivering a cap to each of the-cans carried by said positive feed means, said cap delivering means including spaced' reciprocating plates for supporting the can caps, a finger oper.- ating between the plates for actuating the can cap to feed the same, a crank element connected with the said plates and the finger, a continuouslyrotating shaft, mechanism for connecting the crank element with the continuously rotating shaft, and meansv directly engaged bythe cans for operating the said mechanism.

` e HENRY L. GUEN'IHER, 

